I was messing around with several different versions of nVidia drivers using different settings. Basically what was happening was direct rendering wasn't fully working so the GL menu that popped up blinked constantly.

I was messing around with several different versions of nVidia drivers using different settings. Basically what was happening was direct rendering wasn't fully working so the GL menu that popped up blinked constantly.

thats exactly my problem. and about the best description of how to go about fixing it...what were the final drivers you wound up using?

I honestly don't remember. It was a long time ago. I'm pretty sure I commented on it somewhere in the forums, but like I said, it was a long time ago.

That said, I'm pretty sure UI2 won't even load if DRI is disabled, so it most likely was.

I just installed b4 about two weeks ago, but I haven't got the damn thing stable yet... so I haven't really done any playing of media to say whether or not I get that issue with a vanilla b4 install or not.

Question, is compositing working? You should see a line such as below in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

Actually the Nvidia drivers will always display that message if you attempt to enable compositing. The error messages, if any, would be below it.

Other possibilities are enabling options that your video card doesn't support. What is your video card and what options are enabled in the video card device section of xorg.conf? Also, in the previous log mentioned, what does it say about AGP (is it using apgart or the internal nvapg)? Sometimes switching those improves things greatly. What kind of FPS do you get in glxgears? That may not be an official benchmark, but it usually gives you a clue as to if something is wrong with OpenGL.

In my experience, the older your Nvidia video card the more problems you will find with the updated drivers. If you have at least a 7x series you really shouldn't have any issues with video on 0710. The 6x series is supposed to be supported... but I've had tons of issues with them in the past using updated drivers. If you have an 8x series... you shouldn't have any problem at all... they just work and damn well... In short Nvidia wants you to buy the new hardware so they support the old stuff less and less.

I would have to agree, I didn't realize that F6 and F8 worked for you. With my problem they exhibited the same symptom.

Once I can get to replacing that one HD in my RAID I can test on my systems, but that's a bit of a chore and my real job has got me working overtime lately. I honestly haven't done this before... I usually use LVM for such things, but Ubuntu doesn't use that by default so this RAID was creating using LVM. I'm going to have to do some research on the Ubuntu way to replacing a bad HD in a RAID array. I'm sure it's not incredibly difficult, it's just something I have to research and very carefully do (I'm always extra careful when it comes to my data).

But I digress... does this happen on all MD's, or is it different based on the hardware it's running on? This really does seem like an OpenGL issue, when dealing with the cursor. I remember, back in the day, I had to deal with such bugs with things blinking as the cursor moves... although I was using MS crap... still the same concept though. Basically the cursor move updated the image before, after, and as the image was "flipping" into view. In other words two things where trying to draw in the same location at the same time.

I have not tried the gyration on another MD, will try. To me this looks like the gyration is not transmitting continuously or, if it works for you, like the driver of the giration transmits the info in bursts instead of a continuous flow, which appears like the button is pressed multiple times and not maintained pressed. I am not sure if there are options to the gyration driver, will investigate.